What sea shanty records you can find on my websites?
On my website, I offer you Recorded Shanties and forebitters only in an authentic way. Sadly these days shanty singers are not any more singing in the same way, as was done on the merchant ships.
People forgot, that how to sing sea shanties in an authentic way. Slowly over time, the authenticity has been replaced by beautiful performances and catchy arrangements. It happened as I suppose thanks to the desire to please as many fans of the sea shanties as possible. So, the connection between the authentic genuine shanties and the modern successors is getting weaker if it even still exists.
The Goal of My research on sea shanties
The goal of my passion is to try to recreate the forgotten sailor work songs. Shanties were the factor that made the sailors believe that they could cope with the task. And when a task ends, it starts the next strenuous task followed by another and another. So please discover my view on shanties, the songs which can move the mountains (or better rise up the yards).
Here and there (for example on shanty festivals or on YouTube), you can find many records of the sea shanties. Those performances were very helpful to me. I would like to thank all those creators and performers for their help and inspiration.
My main goal is to bring back to life, shanties, to show people how they sound authentically. My sources are the books of Stan Hugill, Joanna C. Colcord, Cecil Sharp, Frederic Peace Sharp, William Doerflinger, and so on.
My first milestone is: to record all the songs, without exception, Stan Hugill’s “Shanties From the Seven Seas”.
My focus on Authenticity
I wish to reconstruct those songs, without any extra arrangement. Maybe, sometimes I will use special features such as the noise of the sea as the background. But each of the shanties will be sung the way how been sung in the past. The song will be adjusted for work, not the opposite. All forgotten things that were special to shanties, such as pace, effort in pulling, heaving, or spinning, will be preserved.
Unfortunately, I do not have a sailor’s gang handy, so so far I have to sing the shanties myself. Maybe someday I will find a crew for singing the choruses…
My private collection of shanty books
Shantyman library – here, you can see descriptions and recommendations of books worth looking into, they are true sources of knowledge about sea shanties. To gain knowledge about sea shanties is the main ultimate purpose of this library, every book in this library is somehow related to sea shanties and before mast songs.
More involvement in Traditional Sea Shanties
You can find this record here or directly listen below. If you want to discuss the record or share your opinion you can do it in my Facebook forum here.
Enjoy the journey!… Sail-Ho!